If you have an interest in serving the community, all of the policing roles have aspects that will interest you.
There is no one attribute, skill or experience that will guarantee your success as a candidate—instead we are looking for your overall suitability for the role you are applying for. We measure this through a complex matrix, encompassing intelligence, psychological make-up, general fitness, work history, community involvement, as well as medical and prior offence history.

Work Experience

We expect to see all Police and PSO applicants, irrespective of age, in some form of paid employment (full-time or part-time) at the time of application and throughout the recruitment process.

The types of employment preferred are those that provide customer facing exposure to a cross-section of the general public e.g. hospitality, retail and customer service industries. This provides applicants with work examples that are relevant to the policing role which involves dealing with people of all walks of life in situations of elevated stress.

Applying after a period of full time parenting

If you are returning to work after a period of full time parenting for more than 4 years, it is recommended that you secure some part-time customer facing work experience before applying so that you can provide recent work examples during the recruitment process. If you have been away been away from the workforce for less than 4 years, your work experience prior to undertaking parenting responsibilities will be sufficient.

Applying straight after high school

Not every 18 year old will be ready to apply, but those who make great officers are gathering life experience while they are in high school.
We do not require pre-requisite subject selection, however any subjects that develop communication skills, languages and fitness are very useful.

The following suggestions will help younger applicants develop the life experience we expect to see in our applicants.

Part-time work experience in a customer service environment - provides exposure to people from all walks of life and develops communication, teamwork and conflict resolution skills

Note: If you are intending on applying once reaching the age of 18 having attained your high school VCE or VCAL, we strongly recommend that you seek to increase your customer service paid work to full time hours while going through the recruitment process.